Nirmal Purja

Nirmal "Nims" Purja MBE (born 1982/1983) is a Nepalese mountaineer and former Gurkha and soldier of the Special Boat Service (SBS), an elite special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. He climbed all 14 of the world's peaks that are above 8,000-meters (called the eight-thousanders), in the record time of 6 months and 6 days and using bottled oxygen, beating the previous record of just under 8 years.

Nirmal Purja
Personal information
Born1982/1983 (age 36–37)[1]
Myagdi, Nepal
NationalityNepalese
Career
Starting age29/30[2]
Notable ascentsFastest to climb all fourteen 8000 meter mountains (6 months, 6 days, with supplemental oxygen). First to reach summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 48 hours.[3][4][5]

Early life

Nirmal Purja was born in the Myagdi district near Dhaulagiri, at 1600 m above sea level and grew up in Chitwan District.[3]

He joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 and the Special Boat Service in 2009,[6] later serving in the elite special forces as a cold-weather warfare specialist.[2] He quit the military in 2018 as a Lance Corporal[7] to focus on his mountaineering career.

He made his first major climb in 2012, reaching the summit of Lobuche East without any previous experience as a mountaineer.

On May 18, 2014 he made his first eight-thousander by conquering the Dhaulagiri (8167 meters) during a return trip of 15 days only.[8]

On May 13, 2016 Purja conquered Mount Everest, his second eighthousander.[8]

On May 15, 2017[8] Purja led the Gurkha Expedition "G200E" conquering Everest together with 13 Gurkhas to commemorate 200 years of Gurkha service to the British Army.[9]

On June 9, 2018 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II[7] for his outstanding work in high altitude mountaineering.

Project Possible 14/7

With a plan to complete 14 summits in seven months, Purja made his first eight-thousander summit on April 23, 2019 and completed the first six-summit phase of his "Project Possible 14/7"[3] on May 24, 2019: Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu.[3] He climbed with Sherpas Mingma Gyabu “David” Sherpa, Lakpa Dendi (Zekson Son), Geljen Sherpa and Tensi Kasang, amongst other mountaineers. The last five summits were climbed in only 12 days. He broke his previous Guinness World Record by climbing Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu within 2 days and 30 minutes.[8][10][11][12][13][14]

Purja completed the second phase in July, 2019, climbing Nanga Parbat (8126 m, July 6), Gasherbrum I (8010 m, July 15), Gasherbrum II (8035 m, July 18), K2 (8611 metres, July 24) and Broad Peak (8047 m, July 26), all in Pakistan.[15][16]

The third and last phase started in September 2019. He summitted Cho Oyu (8188 m, Tibet, China) on September 23 and Manaslu (8163 m, Nepal) on September 27. On October 1, 2019, Chinese authorities agreed to grant Purja and his team a special permit to scale Shishapangma (8027 m, Tibet, China) in the fall season, at the request of the Nepali government. [17] Purja left Nepal for Tibet on October 18, 2019, leading a five-member expedition to climb the mountain[18] and completed Project Possible 14/7 with a successful summit on October 29 using supplemental oxygen.[19][4][5]

Other than the fastest ascent with supplemental oxygen of the 14 tallest mountains in the world, Purja broke the following records: most 8000 m mountains in the Spring season, climbing six; most 8000 m mountains in the Summer season, climbing five; fastest summit of the three highest mountains in the world, Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga; fastest summit of the five highest mountains in the World, Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu; fastest lower 8000ers, Gasherbrum 1, 2 and Broad Peak; fastest higher 8000ers, consecutive summits of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 48 hours (beats his own previous record of 5 days).[3]

References
  1. "Record-chasing Nepali climber wants to inspire next generation". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  2. "Nirmal Purja: Nepali climber carving mountaineering history". Sportstar. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  3. ""Project Possible" webpage". Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  4. "Nirmal "Nims" Purja Summits All 14 8,000 Meter Peaks in Just 6 Months 6 Days, Shattering Former Record by Over 7 Years". Rock and Ice Magazine. October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  5. BBC News. "Nirmal Purja: Ex-soldier climbs 14 highest mountains in seven months". BBC News. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  6. "Meet the man who climbed 14 mountains in six months and stunned the world". Red Bull. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  7. "The London Gazette: Nirmal Purja MBE". June 9, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  8. Dream Wanderlust (May 24, 2019). "Nirmal Purja summits 5th eight-thousander in 12 days, ends 1st phase of 'Project Possible'". Dreamwanderlust.com.com. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  9. "Gurkha Everest Expedition – Himalayan Odyssey". Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  10. Rakhan Pokhrel (May 15, 2019). "Nirmal Purja stands atop Kanchenjunga after heroic ascent of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna". The Himalaya Times. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  11. "Primeras cimas de la temporada en el Annapurna, Nirmal Purja tacha el primer 8.000" (in Spanish). Desnivel.com. April 24, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  12. "Nirmal Purja aclara que sí hizo cima en el Dhaulagiri… ahora va a por Everest, Lhotse y Makalu" (in Spanish). Desnivel.com. May 20, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  13. Isaac Fernández (May 23, 2019). "Nirmal Purja corona Everest y Lhotse en el día… y hoy intenta el Makalu" (in Spanish). Desnivel.com. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  14. Isaac Fernández (May 24, 2019). "Nirmal Purja completa sus 6×8000 de primavera con el Makalu" (in Spanish). Desnivel.com. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  15. Rajan Pokhrel (July 7, 2019). "Nirmal 'Nims' Purja scales Nanga Parbat to complete his seventh 8000er". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  16. Angela Benavides (July 26, 2019). "Breaking: Nirmal Purja Climbs Broad Peak". Explorers.web. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  17. ""China to allow Nirmal 'Nims' Purja to climb Shishapangma"". Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  18. ""Nirmal 'Nims' Purja leaves for Shishapangma to complete 14 peaks in 6 months"". Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  19. Rajana Ppokhrel (September 27, 2019). "Nirmal 'Nims' Purja sets world record scaling 13 peaks in five months". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
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